Investigators are trying to restore files deleted from a flight simulator found in the home of one of the pilots of the missing Malaysian jetliner as they continue hunting for clues to the deepening mystery.
Files containing records of simulated flights carried out on the program by the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, were deleted Feb. 3, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu said.
Malaysia’s defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, told a news conference Wednesday that the pilot is considered innocent until proven guilty of any wrongdoing, and his family is cooperating in the probe.
Deleting files could be routine to free up memory space, but investigators want to check the files for any signs of unusual flight paths that could help explain where the missing plane went.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people aboard disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanations, but have said the evidence so far suggests the flight was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled.
They are unsure what happened next.
Police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, and have asked for background checks from abroad on all foreign passengers.
The 53-year-old pilot joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18,000 hours of flight experience.
People who knew Zaharie from his involvement in opposition political circles in Malaysia and other areas of his life have described him as sociable, humble, caring and dedicated to his job.
Relatives of passengers on the missing airliner — two-thirds of them from China — have grown increasingly frustrated over the lack of progress in the search, in its 12th day on Wednesday.
Planes sweeping across vast expanses of the Indian Ocean and satellites peering down on Central Asia have turned up no new clues in the hunt.
“It’s really too much. I don’t know why it is taking so long for so many people to find the plane. It’s 12 days,” Subaramaniam Gurusamy, 60, said in an interview from his home on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. His 34-year-old son, Pushpanathan Subramaniam, was on the flight heading to Beijing for a work trip.
“He’s the one son I have,” Subaramaniam said.
Before Wednesday’s news briefing at a hotel near the Kuala Lumpur airport, two Chinese relatives of passengers held up a banner saying “Truth” in Chinese and started shouting before security personnel escorted them out.
“I want you to help me to find my son!” one of the two women said.